Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’ve never heard of the RiverRun Film Festival, but that’s where FargoFellini is reporting in from today with his reviews of two new films:
Hey Harry --
You know the drill, long time reader, first time writer. Tonight I attended the first ever public screening of the new Antonio Banderas movie "Take the Lead." For those of you who don't know, the movie follows the true story of Pierre Dulaine (Banderas), a professional ballroom dancing instructor in New York City. One night he observes a young man named Rock (Coach Carter's Rob Brown), destroying his principal's car with a golf club. Pierre learns who the owner of the car is and pays a visit to the principal (played by the always awesome Alfre Woodard), saying that he wants to prevent further instances like this by teaching the kids ballroom dancing. She accepts his offer mainly because he's going to work for free, and no one else would voulenteer to supervise detention.
This is where the movie starts to lose it.
Pierre is introduced to the kids, each of whom is a stereotype of a stereotype. There's Lahrette, the girl with amazing talent being held back by the fact she must take care of her siblings while her prositute mother is at work... there's Rock, who has to work at the garbage dump while his alcoholic father drinks all day. There's the "white gangsta" charecter, the "i'm way too good for this" guy, and several other stereotypes we've seen in a million other movies. The dance sequences are well executed, which is appropriate since it was helmed by music video director Liz Friedlander.
I won't bother getting into any more spoilers than I already have, suffice to say that everything that happens in the film you can get by watching the first 10 minutes, or just seeing the trailer.
There is a fun subplot involving Caitlin (Lauren Collins), a downtown white girl who's love of dancing has been lost due to the overbearing perfectionist that she has for a mother, and Monster (Brandon Andrews) an overweight black guy from uptown, who no one believes in. It's just as harmless and Hallmark-ish as the rest of the film, but I dunno... I dug their subplot. Unlike other subplots like one about a long running gang feud, or a bitchy tango dancer who doesn't believe in the kids...
All that said, the audience that I saw it with really got into it. It played well as a crowd pleaser, which is cool I suppose, but it makes me really question the intelligence of an audiences these days. I have no doubt it will be a huge hit when it comes out, and it will of course be every 7th grade girl's "favorite movie eVeR!!" But by and large I would recommend staying away from this "Stand and Deliver" meets "Save the Last Dance" meets "Sister Act 2" retred, and go rent the excellent documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom" instead.
....Now for the midnight movie....
I'm not sure if you're familiar with the film "Isolation" or not, but it's a "Zombie Cow Movie." Yes... that's right... zombie cows... and it's a whole bunch of gory fun! I won't get into too much detail...as the film is coming out this summer (it was aquired by Lions Gate if I recall correctly), but the film follows Dan, a down-on-his-luck, Irish dairy farmer who when in need of some cash allows two scientists to do genetic testing on his cows. They're looking to create cows that reproduce more quickly and get pregnant faster. And boy do they...
The movie begins on the night that the first cow gives birth. It gives birth, but something is wrong, terribly wrong with the calf, and they are forced to put the animal down. Durring an autopsy they discover that the new born calf was already pregnant, and that it was carrying six fetuses inside of it already, all of which were disfigured and deformed with their skeletons on the outside. And as it turns out, they're all still alive and hungry for flesh.
For the next 80 minutes the audience is treated to pure gore-fest/zombie film delight. As these Zombie/Parasite cows wreck havoc on the farmer, two runnaway kids living on the property, and the scientists.
That's all I will say about "Isolation" other than it comes with a high recommendation for horror fans. It's a bit slow at times, and there are times when the film takes itself a litle too seriously, but it's all in good fun... and come on... it's Zombie cows! How can you go wrong?
Thanks Harry, if you use this you can call me FargoFellini.
Thanks, man. Let us know if you see anything else there that you enjoy.
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